Bantu Education


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The Bantu Education Act of 1953 was yet another piece of legislation that increased the disparity between white and black South Africans.This act eliminated almost all funding to black schools and forced churches to sell their schools to the government.
The concept of this educational discrimination was inspired by the Nazi techniques implemented before the Holocaust. The educational system for blacks was designed to educate blacks only to a minimal amount to keep them in the subservient fields of work. The idea was that any person's future job and role in society was dictated by their race and therefore their education was provided accordingly.
Since blacks were considered inferior and destined for menial jobs, their educational facitities were lacking in resources, textbooks, and teachers. Teachers salaries were decreased and less people became educated to be teachers, and consequently there was a serious shortage of qualified black teachers to educate black South Africans. Education was put under the control of state governments who saw funding black schools as taking away from white education and wasting resources (Education Under the Apartheid, http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/56.htm). The system was so decrepit that some parents would have rather let their children roam the streets than be subjected to the Bantu Education System. This entire propaganda scheme was utilized under the osposis that it was beneficial to the blacks and that it was in everyone's best interest. It was also justified by religion. The Bantu Education Act was yet another piece of Apartheid legislation that fed the vicious cycle of segregation, prejudice, and discrimination in South Africa in the 1880's. (Bantu Education, http://www.rebirth.co.za/apartheid_segregation_bantu_education3.htm

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